The estranged wife of a Birmingham terrorist has gone on trial accused of knowing about plans to set off suicide bombs in crowded public places.

Salma Kabal, 23 and from Alum Rock, is alleged to have been aware husband Ashik Ali and others were plotting a terrorist outrage, but failed to inform police.

Ali was one of three ringleaders of a Birmingham plot convicted in February of planning a UK terrorism campaign that would have been bigger than the 7/7 London bombings.

On Wednesday Woolwich Crown Court was told Kabal was secretly recorded having a conversation with Ali in a flat in Balsall Heath and that they exchanged text messages during her attempts to revive their relationship.

During the covertly recorded exchange between the two, Ali was allegedly heard trying to convince Kabal that he would not go back to her because of his plans for the future.

The police and security service listening device was said to have recorded Ali telling his wife she would only understand the full implications of what he was doing “when your house gets raided and you get taken in because of me.”

Stuart Baker, prosecuting, said: “Even if the information she had about where the act of terrorism was actually going to take place was not correct, she should have told police.”

The court was told one text message she sent to Ali said: “Four Lions at nine, Channel 4.”

Mr Baker told the jury: “It is a film, a black comedy involving a group of radical but incompetent Muslims who wanted to be suicide bombers. Why has Salma Kabal drawn Ashik Ali’s attention to that, a film about terrorism?”

He added: “She knew he had wanted to do something terrorist related for some time.’’

Kabal, who had been married to Ali for two years before their separation in 2011, is not accused of being involved in the plot but is charged with having information she should have disclosed to the police. She denies the charge.